B. Substantives with two forms for the plural: -1s, -ux. Most of these modern distinctions in meaning have little to justify them either in the history of the use of the words, or in their etymology. (1) Aïeul; aïeuls, and aïeux (L. L. aviolus). The plural aïeuls is confined to the strict meaning, grandfather or grandmother: as, Il est mort avant ses aïeuls. So bisaïeul and trisaïeul. The more common form aïeux is only used in the sense of ancestors. (2) Ciel, ciels, and cieux (cœlum). The plural ciels is only found in such figurative senses as— (3) Eil, oils, and yeux (oculus). The plural yeux is always employed even in a figurative sense, when there is no danger of a mistake (!) being made between that figurative sense and the literal one : Un fromage qui est rempli d'yeux. A cheese which is full of holes. Dans cette maison il y a beaucoup d'oeils-de-boeuf. (4) Travail (work); travails and travaux (trabaculum). The plural travails is only used in the rare senses of (a) Wooden frames, used to prevent horses from kicking whilst they are being shod. This is its literal meaning. (b) Official reports, as Ce ministre a eu plusieurs travails cette semaine avec le roi. (5) Ail (garlic); ails and aulx (allium). (6) Bétail; bestiaux. (Acad.) Bétail (cattle) has for plural bestiaux. The old form of the substantive was bestial, which is now only used as an adjective. § 215. Proper Names. "A proper name may be accidentally employed as a cornmon substantive, and is then capable of flexion.” (§ 150.) In this natural use of proper names we have the origin of a large number of common nouns. Some come from an historical source; others from the names of inventors, or of the place where the invention was made, etc. Many have been, as a matter of course, altered more or less in form. * Brake, trave. (GASc.) K § 216. The plural article is often put in an emphatic way before proper names, without any idea of plurality. Les Bossuet, les Racine ont été la gloire du siècle de Louis XIV. (LITTRÉ.) Les expressions heureuses qui font l'âme de la poésie et le mérite des Homère, des Virgile, des Tasse, des Milton, des Pope, des Corneille, des Racine, des Boileau. (VOLTAIRE.) Guidé par nos maîtres les Villemain, les Ampère, les D. Nisard, les Ph. Charles, nous avons tâché de joindre le résultat de nos recherches personnelles au souvenir de leurs savantes leçons. (DEMUGEOT.) Plural of Foreign Words. § 217. In order to understand what is here meant by a "foreign" word, it will be necessary to bear in mind what is given in greater detail in the Introduction : That French consists of two great vocabularies of words: 1. The popular vocabulary, developed gradually and unconsciously by the people during the first eleven or twelve centuries after Christ. 2. The non-popular vocabulary, formed consciously and artificially by the learned from the classical Latin, and (to a less extent) from the Greek. Words thus formed date from the twelfth century to the present time. 66 French possesses in addition a number of words directly borrowed from various languages (Introduction), including Latin and Greek. Such words are foreign." By far the larger number · have accepted a French dress, and are subjected in all respects to French rules. Comparatively few have resisted naturalization, and present difficulties in their treatment. The following test may usually be applied with safety: When an accent has been added, or any change, however slight, has been made in the original spelling, the word, whether common or not, may be said to be naturalized. * Help may often be obtained from the pronunciation; but complete naturalization cannot with safety be inferred from the current speech, for Frenchmen pronounce almost all words at once according to their own rules. Still the pronunciation may in French be of service; in English it can be no guide. But the reason is different; the English maintain the foreign pronunciation a long time after a word is naturalized. The contrast between English and French habits is here very striking. Few words resist naturalization for any length of time; still some succeed in so doing. Most strikingly appear such ecclesiastial words as are given in § 151. The reason is plain-the Roman Catholic ritual is in Latin. It is mainly with Greek, Latin (non-ecclesiastic), or Italian words that the struggle goes on. Those who know the foreign form, and those who do not, are about equal in number and power. In words, on the contrary, which have their origin in German, English, etc., few know what is right; and the word, long before it can be said to be common, loses its distinctive nationality. The ignorance of all renders variance impossible. *It is almost needless to say that the converse is not true; many words establish themselves without alteration: album, piano, major, etc. Compound Substantives. § 218. The syntactical dependence of the component parts is not always easy to detect. No rule of general application is possible,-unless it be this: The shortened phrase must be filled up, and the component parts must in the full phrase appear exactly as they stand in the shortened phrase. We will examine a few words at length, and give with some others such suggestions as seem wanted. A complete list is unnecessary.* § 219. In the following words the sense evidently requires that in both the singular and plural s should be omitted: Un réveille-matin (an alarum clock), means literally something which wakes one up in the morning. It is plain that the plural must be réveille-matin, for réveille is a verb, and the number of mornings' would not increase in proportion to the number of clocks. peine qui crève le cœur un trouble-fête quelq. qui trouble la fête un perce-neige un prie-Dieu = = fleur qui perce la neige des crève-cœur. des abat-jour. des trouble-fête. des perce-neige. chaise sur laq. on prie Dieu des prie-Dieu. un casse-cou = endroit où l'on se casse le cou des casse-cou. § 220. In the following examples, on the contrary, the sense requires s in both singular and plural: un or des porte-allumettes (boite qui porte des allumettes.) un or des porte-clefs un or des serre-papiers un or des essuie-mains un or des cent-gardes (valet de prison qui porte les clefs.) § 221. In a still larger number of words it seems indifferent whether or not s is added to the second component; equally good sense is produced with or without it. (1) The analysis appears to lean towards the addition of s to the last component for both singular and plural in- un tire-bottes un casse-noisettes un garde-cendres des tire-bottes (2) On the contrary, it would seem better not to put s in the plural, and à fortiori not in the singular in des garde-feu des garde-chasse des sous-pied un garde-feu un garde-chasse un sous-pied * Such a list is however given by Bescherelle in his larger Grammar. It includes some 1200 words. See also Didot: Observations sur l'Orthographe, pp. 417-452. But in this and all other doubtful cases it is perhaps better to put s in the plural of the compound word, but to omit it in the singular; to say: un sous-pied un tire-botte un casse-noisette des sous-pieds des tire-bottes des casse-noisettes § 222. In addition to this difficulty about the second component, appears a difficulty about the first, in compound words with garde. (1) Garde may be looked upon as a verb (quelque chose qui garde), and is of course invariable. (2) Garde may be looked upon as a noun (gardien), and is of course capable of taking an s. Hence the following customary* forms : * Littré makes the following observations on this difficulty: "Garde mot employé en composition qui se dit tantôt des personnes qui gardent (un garde-chasse), tantôt des choses qui conservent (un gardemanger). Le pluriel offre des difficultés. Pour le second cas, tout le monde est d'accord; garde reste invariable ; des garde-manger. Pour le premier, l'accord des grammairiens cesse; l'Académie n'indique le pluriel que pour garde-côte et garde-note, et là elle écrit gardes-côtes, gardes-notes. Laveaux a été explicite, disant que garde en cet emploi représente le substantif masculin garde, et doit toujours prendre la marque du pluriel. Mais, à moins de supposer une ellipse, dans gardecôte, garde-magasin, etc., ce n'est pas le substantif garde, c'est le verbe garder, qui est en composition De plus, en suivant la vue de l'Académie et de Laveaux, on arriverait à cette singulière conclusion qu'il faudrait écrire des garde-meuble, quand il s'agit du lieu où l'on garde les meubles, et des gardes-meuble, quand il s'agit de l'employé qui garde les meubles. Cette anomalie montre d'une façon palpable qu'il faut laisser, en tous les cas, garde invariable." |